Forecast

In wake of suits, Apple cuts cost of replacing some iPhone batteries

Chronicle Staff and News Services| on December 28, 2017

Siri, call my attorney

The latest lawsuit over Apple slowing down older iPhones comes with a potential twist: jail time. A French consumers’ rights group outlines the same basic claim as the U.S. suits: Apple owes its customers money for not previously disclosing the slowdowns, which it does with some iPhones whose batteries are old. But in France, it’s actually illegal to make old devices worse to sell new versions — a process known as “planned obsolescence.” Meanwhile, Apple apologized and said it soon will reduce the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement for the iPhone 6 and later models by $50 — from $79 to $29.

Number of the day

$102 million

That’s about how much Apple CEO Tim Cook received in pay, bonuses and stocks for the fiscal year, Apple disclosed in a regulatory filing. No figures were immediately available on how many cigarettes that would buy in a French jail.

UPS: We take it back

Some 1.4 million packages are expected to be sent back to retailers Wednesday, according to UPS, which has called it National Returns Day. The anticlimactic Internet retail holiday tops a record December of package returns, as consumers shipped backed more than 1 million packages per day during the month. National Returns Day traffic is expected to be up 8 percent over last year, according to UPS.

Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle